Cong councillor murder: State moves division bench against single bench's CBI probe order

kolkata: The state government on Thursday moved an appeal before a division bench of the Calcutta High Court challenging a single bench order that directed the transfer of investigation into a Congress councilor, Tapan Kandu's murder from the state police to the CBI. The government sought an urgent hearing on its appeal.

"Give the (mentioning) slip, we will consider," remarked the Chief Justice. The hearing of the appeal will most likely take place sometime next week.Tapan Kandu, the Congress councillor of Purulia's Jhalda municipality, was shot dead by assailants on March 13 near his residence. On Monday, Justice Rajasekhar Mantha had ordered a CBI probe into the death of Kandu. The court directed the Central agency to submit a report on its investigation in the case in 45 days.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava, said the prayer for hearing the state's appeal against the single bench order will be considered.

Kandu's wife Purnima had moved the single bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha seeking transfer of the murder probe from the state police to the CBI, alleging complicity of the inspector in-charge of Jhalda police station in the death of her husband. The counsel for Purnima had submitted before the court of Justice Mantha that the superintendent of police in Purulia district, during a press conference on April 3, gave a clean chit to the inspector in-charge even before the completion of the probe

Meanwhile, the police had claimed that the murder was fallout of a property dispute. Police have claimed that Rs 7 lakh was given to the killers.